Until a couple of weeks ago, it started having problems booting up. I think on the third try it finally started up. But then the next day, it was stuck on "Powering Up..." screen. Several attempts to powerdown/restart were not successful.

I've been around Tivos long enough to know when my hard drive failed. So I ordered a new HD upgrade from Weakknees, which arrived today. 5 minutes later it was installed.

while you've got the tivo open, do a visual inspection of the power supply. It's possible (likely) that one or more of the capacitors are bulging and in need of replacement. If you can handle basic soldering, this is something you can repair yourself.

Yeah, I found a few other threads. I can solder. One cap is slightly bulged. There are two of the same size that look like they're glued together with a yellow/white hard foam material, but the caps themselves look OK. Is it easier to just replace the entire PS?

Caps finally received today, no thanks to really slow shipping from Mouser.

But all 9 caps replaced, and my S3 is humming along swimmingly with the old hard drive.

The hardest part was re-opening up the PCB holes once I removed the caps. I think my soldering iron just wasn't hot enough, and it took a lot longer to soften the solder on the board. I dabbed a tiny bit of my own solder to help with the heat transfer, and that worked, but also filled up the empty holes. A little tricky, but I got them all in.

Caps finally received today, no thanks to really slow shipping from Mouser.

But all 9 caps replaced, and my S3 is humming along swimmingly with the old hard drive.

The hardest part was re-opening up the PCB holes once I removed the caps. I think my soldering iron just wasn't hot enough, and it took a lot longer to soften the solder on the board. I dabbed a tiny bit of my own solder to help with the heat transfer, and that worked, but also filled up the empty holes. A little tricky, but I got them all in.

Thanks for the info/help.

When dealing with large areas of copper like on the bottom of the power supply board, sometimes a soldering gun is better than a soldering iron.

(but of course one often has to make do with what one has on hand)

In soldering, always remember, heat up the work (the stuff to be soldered) and let it melt the solder.

In unsoldering, introducing some more solder, along with some of its rosin core flux, can help get the original to melt.

You can sometimes open up those holes by heating them and then poking with a sewing needle.